A must read for anyone that wants to understand present days economics and politics. The article, appearing in a leading liberal journal, acknowledges what I have been saying for years, i.e. that what passes for the “Left” in today’s world is simply the left-wing of capitalism allied with the cultural Left that has repudiated whatever populist, libertarian, decentralist, or anti-capitalist tradition the U.S. Left would have ever had. This writer even acknowledges the role of the Dutton strategy in bringing about this state of affairs.

By Matt Stoller

The Atlantic

t was January 1975, and the Watergate Babies had arrived in Washington looking for blood. The Watergate Babies—as the recently elected Democratic congressmen were known—were young, idealistic liberals who had been swept into office on a promise to clean up government, end the war in Vietnam, and rid the nation’s capital of the kind of corruption and dirty politics the Nixon White House had wrought. Richard Nixon himself had resigned just a few months earlier in August. But the Watergate Babies didn’t just campaign against Nixon; they took on the Democratic establishment, too. Newly elected Representative George Miller of California, then just 29 years old, announced, “We came here to take the Bastille.”

4 comments

How true, in reality there are more working class minorities than whties anymore. Also, whites without high school still out live blacks without high school by 5 years. Donald Trump followers are small business owners and in construction not manufacturing work. Many Census studies show his followers make 72,000 a year Also, college educated does not equal high income Clinton’s followers average income is 62,000 but National Review pumping up Trump lied about it. Also, Ohio has poverty rates better than most Southern states that have high tech like North Carolina and Georgia. In fact Iowa has the lowest poverty rate in the US adjusted for cost of living while California has the highest poverty rate adjusted for cost of living. Los Angeles has a 27 percent poverty rate versus Des Moines Iowa of 13 percent.

The myth of the white working class, whites on average make 56,000. Working class is making under 50,000 which means you are most likely Latino or Black unless you lived in West Virginia. Myth two, whites without high school didn’t die out they still out live blacks in most parts of the US. Another myth. Myth three most Trump supporters make 71,000 a year versus 61,000 for Sanders who are more college educated.

Also, whites are a smaller make up of the working class by 2032 it will be mainly Black or Latino. In fact West Virginia and Kentucky don’t have the highest poverty rates. Mississippi is the poorest state and the second poorest is New Mexico.